Teacher shot dead at Swedish school in Yemen

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A teacher at a Swedish school in Yemen was gunned down by an unknown perpetrator on Sunday in an attack claimed by some to be a response to what is perceived as Christian proselytising.

The school, ITDC (International Training and Development center) was opened in 1969 as a joint venture between the Pentecostal Church in Sundsvall, northern Sweden, and the Swedish Pentecostal Missionary movement.

The victim was the school's English language teacher and deputy director, American Joel Shrun, who had been living in Taiz with his wife and two children since 2010.

“He was on his way from his home in his car when he was caught up by a motorcycle. They shot him through the window. It is terrible,” confirmed Ulf Edström, deputy head of the Pentecostal church in Sundsvall, to daily Expressen.

Soon after, a militant Islamist group which police believe is affiliated to al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), claimed he had been targeted because of his Christian "proselytizing", reported British paper The Guardian.

According to the paper, a text message which was dispatched to the press claimed that Shrun's murder had been “a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the west has launched against Muslims." Shrun was depicted as "one of the biggest American proselytizers".